Pakistan: Democracy and revolution: Is it enduring relationship?

"When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her."-Oscar Wilde

If you ever thought, and ignored, that in making the "burn them all" battle cry at the PTI rally in Nankana Sahib, Sheikh Rashid was at his expected best, think again. The PTI chief Imran Khan too thinks on these lines; or at least he seems to have given this mind to his senior party leaders. Reportedly, he told them if his 'peaceful' march on November 30 was obstructed there would be a "bloody revolution". His workers would reach the D-Chowk come what may, he said in Lahore on Wednesday. If merely arriving at the D-Chowk is all that PTI leadership wants, then it is not something new; the PTI is already on that site for over one hundred daysand the 'revolution' is nowhere in sight. Obviously, the agenda for the November 30 rally is more ambitious, and in the words of Imran Khan it would be implemented even if it demanded a 'bloody revolution'. As to how the 'bloody revolution' would play out the words uttered by Sheikh Rashid at Nankana Sahib bear repetition. "Waqt aagaya hai in choroun ur kami kaminay logon say mulk ko nijat dilaney ka. Niklo, maro, marjao, jalao, gherao, aur is mulk ko choron aur baimaan hukmurano say nijat dilaoo [time has come to rid the country of these thieves and low-caste, mean-minded people. Come out in large numbers, kill and get killed, burn, haunt and hound them and save the country from these thieves and dishonest rulers]." So far there is no public clarification from the PTI leadership what to talk of contradiction of these grim and sinister threats by the man who is often seen sitting by the side of Imran Khan at their rallies and sit-ins. No wonder then a thick layer of panic - thicker than that of dust raised by bulldozers working to give the twin-cities Rawalpindi-Islamabad the unwanted Metro Bus Project - hangs over the Capital. 

Isn't it crassly diabolic that the PTI leadership which never tired of expressing its uncompromising commitment to genuine democracy in Pakistan should come to such a sorry pass that it should threaten the people with a 'bloody revolution'. Is it something like 'give me power or give me death'? Democracy has no value if violence is the price. Says the indomitable G. K. Chesterton: "You can never have a revolution in order to establish democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution". 'Burn them all' and a 'bloody revolution' calls are mutinous unworthy of the mouths that never tire of upholding the cause of a pure and pristine democratic order. To the extent that the PTI has the right to hold anti-government rallies and sit-ins nothing should stop it. The right of a political party to demonstrate enjoys constitutional sanctity. But this right is exercisable only with responsibility and within clearly laid down parameters. The same very constitution expects of the PTI to secure permission of local administration on its proposed venue and timeline for the proposed rally. If the local administration permits the PTI to hold rally at the D-Chowk it is fine. But if it doesn't, and Imran Khan decides to push through the security barriers then it would be a violation of the constitution. Then it would be a free for all tussle-for-power game, and we all know how it would end. Before taking the plunge, Imran should recognise the faces that brought him to this precipice. Sheikh Rashid has been a part of almost all previous governments including military regime of General Pervez Musharraf. And Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Pervaiz Khattak were indispensable cogs of Asif Ali Zardari's harvester. There is still time for Imran to recast his do or die plan in accordance with a famous quote of Winston Churchill: "A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen."